How to overcome clarifier failure with mobile water treatment solution

The Client's Needs

As a result of the clarifier failure, a higher dissolved organic and suspended solids loading was being sent to the tertiary ponds.

Due to the increased organic loading on the tertiary ponds, solids carryover to the POTW and the threat of odor generation in the system were higher than deemed acceptable. Therefore, an impending plant shutdown was being considered to decrease wastewater generation long enough to empty and repair the clarifier.

The Solution

The client called the Veolia Water Technologies' Mobile Water group to determine if Veolia might be able to help them with this problem. After discussing the situation on the telephone, exchanging technical data and exploring numerous scenarios, it was decided that Veolia’s mobile ActifloTM TURBO ballasted sand clarification technology was capable of temporarily treating the plant’s 1100 GPM of highly organic wastewater, while allowing the clarifier to be repaired without the need for a production shutdown.

Within 36 hours from the initial call, a treatment plan was developed and the ActifloTM TURBO unit was on the road.

Process Description

The ActifloTM TURBO is equipped with a coagulation tank, a flocculation tank with TurbomixTM, a hydraulically optimized settling tank with lamella and a hydrocyclone for microsand washing and recovery.

The TurbomixTMis designed to enhance flocculation through homogeneous mixing of the coagulated water, microsand and polymer with reduced retention time and energy consumption.

Upon arrival at the plant, flexible piping was connected to the Activated Sludge effluent and rerouted to the ActifloTM TURBO unit.

Results

In very short order after being connected to the plant’s clarifier influent and balancing the polymer/ballasted sand additions, the ActifloTM TURBO began to produce extremely clear effluent. Effluent quality averaged < 50 mg/l of Total Suspended Solids.

The performance of the ActifloTM TURBO unit allowed the customer to repair their clarifier without having to experience any production downtime or environmental/social impact of improper wastewater effluent, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A large, integrated natural gas cracking plant in the Midwest, producing ethylene which is then converted into low and high density polyethylene resins for use in a number of different consumer products.